


A talk of motive

by happox



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-10
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-29 01:20:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/999172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happox/pseuds/happox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ymir approached him with curious questions, Armin gave what he thought at the time were honest answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A talk of motive

A long, imposing shadow cast over him alerted Armin of her presence. Seated in the library, reading more than was required or good for his eyes, the lack of light was what snapped him out of his daze. Looking over his shoulder, he saw her quickly advance, until she was standing right next to his chair with long, spider-like fingers grasping his shoulder.

“It’s Armin, right?” she asked, leering down at him through her thin, calculating eyes. Meeting them took courage Armin only hoped he had.

“Y-yes,” he replied, with unwarranted uncertainty. Only five months into the training camp, it was not unusual for other trainees to inquire each other about their names, and he felt suspicious as to why she had remembered his.

A weak and frail thing, Armin had thus far performed well below average in all physical activity, and though he was one of few active participants in the theoretical courses, no one took particular notice of him.

He knew her name though. He had always been good at memorizing, and though she kept to the shadows and said little, she was an incessant background presence, hard ignore.

“I’m Ymir,” she presented herself without any courtesy in her tone, accompanied with a painful squeeze of his shoulder. As he winced, she let go, and pulled out the chair next to him instead.

With one elbow propped up on the table, and the chair pulled too close for comfort, she was still effectively looming over him.

“I wanted to ask you about that friend of yours, who’s always shouting.”

One of the more common reasons why the other trainees bothered to take notice of him, of course, was his relation to Eren. Ymir’s words came as no surprise in that.

“What about him?” Armin asked her, voice mild to avoid the terror her eyes spoke of. There was something monstrous hidden in them, so he wondered whether her glare was even conscious or not.

“Is he really the idealistic moron he appears to be?” she asked bluntly.

Ymir was known to be silent, a shadow of Krista’s, or the dark shield in front of her light. But whenever she spoke, whether privately or in the open, Armin had observed a twisted, devious and cruel quality to her voice. He had likened it to the bullies who had beaten him as a child, the way their taunting could reach him even when blood was pumping in his ears.

Yet her question held seriousness much rare, and it caught him off guard. Her arrival had made him cautious for teasing and other evil means, not a mature question and opening up to a discussion.

“I wouldn’t call him a moron,” Armin replied, with his gaze steady on his hands. “But he really is idealistic, yes.”

“So he really thinks he can kill all of the titans?” The scepticism in Ymir’s voice was overbearing, exaggerated, and, Armin suspected; false.

“Eren believes that you must fight to stand a chance of winning,” he said. “He would never give up. I… I know he will fight until he either wins or loses.”

Ymir slammed her hand at the table, just above his books. He yelped, and she dragged her fingers over the wood, back to her own side.

“So he would sacrifice himself to the titans so they could have another snack, just to feel better,” she said. “How-“

“No, that’s wrong,” Armin interrupted her. “It’s not a matter of sacrifice. He will fight for what he believes in to the bitter end, but he’s not looking to be a martyr.”

Blue eyes met golden brown, but Ymir’s clear annoyance at his interference did not deter him. Ill words of his friend would not be something he tolerated.

“Why?” she asked, once the sparks between their eyes had faded. “Why is he so eager to face off against them?”

There was no reason to indulge her, but there was also no reason to lie.

“We are from Shiganshina,” Armin said, “and we witnessed the horrors of _that day._ That should be reason enough.” The personal tragedy Eren had endured was not to be shared without his consent, he knew.

But what was Ymir’s goal in this? Armin wondered what she was looking for, since her interest in Eren was most likely a cover-up. From what little he knew of her, it would be logical to tie it to Krista. Was she drawing parallels between Eren and her? Wondering how to understand Krista, by trying to understand Eren? There were few similarities, from what Armin knew, but Krista was a goddess made flesh and he had never tried to comprehend her.

Logically, he knew that she must be a flawed and troubled human, same as everyone else. Yet seeing her divinity left him filled only with appreciation for the untainted good she represented.

But Ymir appeared to know of taint.

“So he’s suicidal ‘cause he lost mummy and daddy,” she concluded.

“He’s not suicidal!” Armin’s patience was running thin, even as his mind worked on other matters, at her persistence to insult his friend. “You can call it vengeance, but it’s not a desire to die, and not a desire to sacrifice himself for humanity, which drives him. Eren is going to fight for the sake of winning and aiding in the defeat of the titans, but he’s not looking for a glory-filled death, he couldn’t care less about that.”

In a display of her utter lack of enthusiasm, Ymir whistled. “Well, I see why those rumours are going around about the two of you. But there is a reason why he got that nickname after our first training.”

Scratching the back of her head, as if though he bothered her, she stood up.

“Martyrs are a freaking pain to be close to when you’re selfish, but unless you plan to die a weakling, you better accept it. If you want to keep them safe from themselves, that is.” With those vague words spoken, she left their first and last conversation, leaving him with only questions to ponder.

Years later, when Eren threw himself into a titan’s mouth to save him, he finally realized what she had meant. And she stood on the rooftop behind him, sneering, and called him out on his weakness.


End file.
